My Life, Being Read Again!
by XxTuti17xX
Summary: Sammy gets another copy of her book. But this time it's Night of Skulls! The gang reads it in the graveyard.. where it all started
1. Reading the Prologue and Summary

**A/N: Okay so, it's like 12:40am over here and I'm bored to death! So here's one of those reading the... stories. But this is on Night of Skulls. I'll update this whenever I can. But one more thing- pretend that TibbiToo is done with the Wedding Crasher because this is set after they read that book. Actually, a few months after they read the Wedding Crasher thats when they get Night of Skulls. Hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Sammy Keyes. Wendelin Van Draanen does and she does a wonderful job at it. And I have to give credit to TibbiToo for giving me this idea. The credit goes to her, so TibbiToo if your reading this, Thank you. :)**

Reading the Summary and Prologue

When I woke up this afternoon, I was surprised to see a book at the end of the couch. It was black, orange, and purple. Well, from far away it looked that way. Where did it come from? I don't even think Grams is up yet. I picked it up and gasped.

"Another book about my life..." I groaned, getting up and putting the book down. I guess everyone is gonna wanna read it too. I used the bathroom and brushed my teeth, then I called everyone to meet at the graveyard.

First I called Marissa, she wasn't too thrilled but she agreed and then I called Holly. I didn't expect her to be up at 9 on a Saturday but she was. She agreed instantly, and then I called Billy. Billy made a joke about someone watching me, and I told him to tell Casey that we were meeting at the graveyard.

Me and Casey aren't allowed to talk due to family issues that was blamed on me. But me and Casey meet at the graveyard, after school sometimes, and we just make the most of it. I guess...

I got dressed, left Grams a note, and then quickly scurried to the fire escape along with my backpack with the book inside and some blankets. We met up at the graveyard, but Casey and Billy came late. Apparently, Candi (Casey's mom) wouldn't let him go anywhere so he had to sneak out.

We went in the gate leading to the old part of the graveyard and met at our usual place. I got out the blankets, and set them down. I brought enough blankets,so that we each had one to sit on and one to cover ourselves with. Holly got her own blanket, while me and Casey shared one. Billy and Marissa had to share theirs too.

"Okay, who wants to read first?" I asked, getting right down to business. Holly's hand quickly shot up and I passed the book to her. She studied it for a minute before looking at the inside.

"Do you guys wanna hear the summary too?" Holly asked.

"Yeah, you can read the summary and the prologue." I said anxiously. Everyone else agreed.

"Okay..." She said taking in a deep breath, and letting it out. Then she started to read the summary.

**"It's Halloween, and Sammy Keyes and her friends are spooking through the streets of Santa Martina as zombies when they decide to cut through the graveyard.-"**

"Why does it say, "Sammy Keyes and her friends"? They should've at least said our names. Who knows what friends the person is talking about..." Billy said, fake angry.

"I'm the main character, so I get my name and you guys get friends." Sammy said sticking her tongue out. "Just kidding, geez. People can't take a joke these days." Sammy added, grumbling.

"Okay then. Continuing..." She cleared her throat and started to read again.

**"Zombie's belong in graveyards, right? Not this time. And after being chased by a man wielding as shovel, scared silly by a mummy, and attacked by Heather Acosta, they decide they've had their fill of monsters and head home to eat some candy.-"**

"I'm still stuffed!" Billy announced hitting his stomache.

"Holly continue!" I ordered.

"Dang Casey, you've got a feisty one!" Billy grinned. Casey smirked in return. He hadn't really been talking all that much, just me, Holly, and Billy.

**"But along with bubble gum and chocolate bars, they discover something frightening in their sacks. Something that's definitely not sweet! Before they know it, Sammy and her friends are following suspicious gravediggers, ghoulish embalmers, and shady undertakers. And someone is following _them_. It's enough to make a zombie wonder-is a sack full of candy worth this much trouble...?" **Holly finished and looked around suspiciously.

"How does this person know so much? Guys maybe we're being stalked!" Marissa blurted out of nowhere.

"Marissa, we're not being stalked. This person must be someone who lives nearby. There's no way someone could stalk us _all _the time. We're not even near each other twenty four-seven." Holly argued.

"It's just a coincidence..." Billy said.

"Yeah maybe..." Marissa said not wanting to argue with her boyfriend.

"Come on, it's time for the prologue." I said ending their conversation.

"Okay... but no interruptions, until I'm done." She cleared her throat again and started reading.

**"I love Halloween. And I'm sorry, but trick or treating is _not _just for little kids. It's for anyone who likes to dress whacky and tear through neighborhoods in search of free candy. Which definitely includes me and my friends. And since last year was sort of a disaster because my friends and I wound up going into the scariest house in town to put out a _fire _and discovered a guy inside all bound and gagged and conked over the _head_, and since we had to deal with police and perpetrators and all of _that_, I swore that this year we were just going to have a fun, carefree Halloween, where the worst thing that would happen was we'd eat too much candy. But then Billy wanted to cut through the graveyard. And I made the mistake of going along." **Holly let out a sigh of relief.

"That was kind of long. I could barely breathe during the last sentence." Holly panted.

"You know all that happened this Halloween, is due to Sammy." Billy declared.

"It was your idea to cut through the graveyard for a shortcut to the haunted house." I protested.

"I still blame you for your crime sloving habits." Billy shot back.

"Well then..." I said, haughtily crossing my arms.

"Ugh, guys stop! Who wants to read next?" Holly asked holding out the book.

"I'll read!" Billy said waving his hand around like a first grader.

"Good luck." Holly murmured as she passed him the book.

**A/N: Chapter 1 will come out later on today! Please review... I don't think anyone's reading my stories except the same 4 people! :( At least tell me that it's good so far! Or something..**


	2. Reading Chapter 1

Reading Chapter 1

"Okay... let's see..." Billy said dramatically, he turned the page and exclaimed, "Aha, I have found chapter 1. Everyone please keep quiet while I read." He said like he was a librarian reading for 5 year olds.

**"Hudson Graham may be seventy-three, but he's the coolest old guy you'd ever want to meet. I mean, how many "seniors" will offer up their house to a bunch of teenagers to use as their Halloween headquarters?"**

"Halloween headquarters, really Sammy?" Holly snickered.

"Shut up.. I thought it was funny." Sammy snapped.

"Excuse me! If you wanna stay here and hear the story, you will have to keep quiet!" Billy hissed.

"What a crabapple." I muttered under my breath. Holly and Marissa snickered at my comment, but Casey still wasn't talking. What's wrong with him?

"Anyway, like I was saying before I was so _ruuudely _interrupted," Billy sifted the book and started reading again, **"Most old people zip up their homes, shut off their lights, and hide in a back room until Halloween is over. They don't even hand out candy, let alone lend you stuff to help transform you into scar-faced zombies.**

**Dressing up as zombie was new for me. I usually go as the Marsh Monster, with ratty green hair and marshy-looking clothes, but this year Casey and Billy were going trick-or-treating with Marissa and Holly and me, and they wanted to use super creepy makeup and blood capsules and fake scars and stuff, so just painting myself green seemed pretty lame in comparison. And after I jumped on the scar-faced zombie wagon, Marissa and Holly got on board too."**

"That was so much fun." Marissa grinned. We all agreed, but Casey still kept quiet. I couldn't take it anymore.

"Before we start reading again, I need to talk to Casey first." I said standing up. He didn't move through. "Casey, come on!" I urged grabbing his hand and pulling him up.

Me and him walked for a while until we were a good distance away from everyone else, then I grabbed his hand and looked at him for the longest time. His eyes looked sad.

"What's wrong?" I finally asked, tears brimming my eyes. I hated seeing Casey sad.

"Nothing..." He said sadly, staring at the ground.

"Casey, please tell me. I really don't like seeing you sad." I said tears spilling out of my eyes before I could stop them.

Casey looked up, finally realizing that I was crying. He wiped them away, but they kept going.

"Sammy, if you really wanna know... I'll tell you after we read the book, okay? I just don't wanna mess up your day." He said soothingly.

"Okay..." I said quietly. I tried to stop crying and then I took deep breaths and grabbed his hand.

"Looks like your feeling much better." He smiled.

"Come on. I wanna finish that book. You know, to get it over with." I said, starting to walk.

When we got back, Billy, Marissa and Holly were talking about something excitedly.

"Guys, what happened?" Casey asked.

"We kept reading chapter 1 and it's awesome!" Holly said.

"GUYS! You weren't supposed to read without us!" I shouted at them.

"Chillax Sammy. We'll read it again for you and Casey." Billy said.

"After you, I'm reading." Casey said sitting down. I sat down next to him and Billy started reading again.

**"Our friend Dot didn't want anything to do with our little death brigade. She said she was going to "reprise" her bumblebee costume from last year and take her sisters trick-or-treating instead, but I think she just didn't want to risk another Halloween like last year."**

Marissa snickered, remembering. "Marissa!" I hissed. "It wasn't _that _bad." I said.

"Whatever you say Sammy!" She snickered again.

**"Anyway, Holly, Marissa, Billy, Casey, and I all met at Hudson's house and had a blast painting and spraying and plastering scars onto each other. It got uuuuuugly! And even uglier when we put in our fake rotten teeth!**

**"You look hideous, darling!" Billy says to Marissa, in a Count Dracula accent. **

**"And you're revolting!" Marissa says back with a laugh.**

**Then Hudson comes in with some old, worn flannels and a pair of scissors. "Seems you could use some tatters to go with those faces."**

"Hudson is the _coolest_!" Holly blurted out.

We all agreed, and turned back to Billy, so he could keep reading.

**"Are you serious?" Casey asks him.**

**"Rip away," he says with a laugh.**

**So we put on the shirts, then we tear and tatter and, you know, _destroy _them, which really does a lot to complete our zombie look. **

**"Very gruesome," Hudson says as he lets us out. "You look like you're straight from the grave."**

**Billy hunches over like Quasimodo as we go down the porch steps, then makes a horrifying sound in his throat and says, "Let's go, my pretties." **

"You would Billy! You would." I muttered.

Everyone snickered except Billy. He just glared at me.

"It's true." I said defensively.

"Anyway, like I was saying..." He said turning back to the book.

**"So off we go, racing from house to house, collecting candy in our pillowcases, and it doesn't take long for Billy to really start hamming it up. **

**"Aaaaah," he'd gurgle when someone answered the door. "I think I'm dyyyyyyyyying!" Then he'd grab his throat and stagger around, finally collapsing onto the porch. "Caaaaaaandy!" he'd gasp, holding up his sack. "Save me!"**

**The person who answered the door would always laugh, then give all os us two or three pieces instead of just one."**

"That _was _awesome." Marissa said grinning.

"And funny." Holly chimed in.

"Yeah Billy, you looked ridiculous!" I snickered.

"Hey, at least I got us some more candy!" He snapped.

"Cranky!" I muttered under my breath.

This time, _everyone _snickered.

**"You're the master at this," Casey tells him after about the sixth performance.**

**"And you, my pretty, are my slave!"**

**Casey laughs, "Dude, there's no way I'm your pretty."**

**"My pretty ugly, then!" Billy rasps. "But still my slave."**

**So we're all laughing and chasing after Billy as he scurries back onto the sidewalk, but we quit laughing quick when we find ourselves doing a domino-style bum-up into a _cop_.**

**It's a prety shadowy right there, so it takes a second for me to realize that it's not a real cop-it's just a guy in costume. And _then _it hits me that this fake cop is none other than Danny Urbanski."**

Marissa winces at hearing his name after what happened. I don't really blame her...

"Wow Sammy! Where's the love?" Billy snickered.

"I don't like him! I always kind of hated him..." I snapped back.

"Danny's a snake!" Casey said before Billy started reading again. We all nodded.

**"Now, let's just say that Danny Urbanski doesn't need to dress up for Halloween. Anyone with two eyes can see that he's a snake. Trouble is, Marissa's two eyes don't focus where Danny's concerned. She's had a crush on him _forever_, and even though she knows he's a slithering sn****eak, she still can't seem to shake him.**

**"Dude!" Billy says to him. "A cop?"**

**Danny laughs. "Best way to stay out of trouble, man." He checks us all over. "You, on the other hand, are dead meat!" Then he laughs really hard at his on joke.**

**I hate the way Danny laughs. It's one of those forced, kind of hacking laughs that sounds like a lawn mower that won't start.**

**Ha-ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha."**

"Sammy, really?" Holly smirked.

"YES! Really!" I said defensively.

"Forced laugh? You find a flaw in _everyone_!" Holly stated.

"Do not! Now Billy, read the rest!" I said dismissing the case.

**"Like he needs a new spark plug.**

**Anyway, Danny and Casey used to be really good friends, but not anymore. And I think Danny knows that Holly and I aren't exactly his biggest fans, so it was kinda awkward standing there in the middle of the sidewalk. Especially since Marissa was mortified to be looking so drop-dead ugly.**

**"Hide me!" she whimpers, then slouches behind me and Holly.**

**But Danny knows that Marissa and I are usually together, so he sort of leans around and says, "Marissa?"**

**Marissa spits her nasty yellow teeth into her hand and smiles at him. But all those white teeth flashing through warts and scars and peeling skin looks weird. **

**Like, _extra _creepy.**

**Danny laughs again. "Hey, beautiful. Wanna be my _ghoul_friend?"**

"Snake!" I mutter under my breath. Casey nudged me and smiled. So I guess he heard...

**"Now, he says this all, you know, _suave_-like, but there's also a hint of sarcasm to it and it's hard to tell-is he making fun of her? Or is he actually saying, You want to hang out with me tonight?**

**Or maybe this is his snarky way of apologizing for sucking face with that nasty Heather Acosta and flirting with every hot girl who walks by.**

**With Danny you just can't tell."**

"He wasn't always like that..." Billy suddenly said, a little sadly. "We used to call him, Dippin' Dots Danny. Remember that, Casey."

"Yeah..." He sighed. "He was so much fun before, and know... I don't know. How did he get that way?"

"Who knows.. The world is a crazy place and I guess he's still trying to figure out who he is, like most of us." Billy said. Woah, that was deep. Even for Billy.

**"Anyway, Marissa obviously doesn't know what to say because she just _stares _until Casey comes to the rescue, asking him, "So who you hangin' with tonight?"**

**"I'm meeting up with Nick and some of the guys at the haunted house on Feere Street." Then he kinda throws a smirk at the rest of us and says to Casey, "I can't believe you're trick-or-treating, man."**

**What's totally implied in this is, I can't believe you're hanging ot with these _babies. _See, even though we went to the same junior high, Danny and Casey are both freshman in high school now. Billy would be, too, only he got held back a year, so he's stuck in eighth grade with us.**

**And I'm sure Casey's at least a _little _embarrassed by Danny's comment, but he doesn't show it. Instead he moves past Danny saying, "Hey, if I'm ever too cool for free candy, I really will be a walking dead man."**

"That was pretty cool of you, Casey." Holly says smiling gratefully.

"Yeah, thanks for sticking up for us." Marissa says, a little distractedly. Probably thinking about the Danny encounter at the mall. But you'll hear about that soon.

"Well he was being a jerk, I had to say something to get him off our backs." Casey said. "And I was not embarrassed. I love hanging out with you guys." He says looking right at me.

**"Danny let's out another one of his fake laughs, then says, "Whatever, man. I'm heading over to the haunted house," and he takes a few steps before calling over his shoulder, "There'll be people from _high _school there."**

**So he went one way and we went the other. And even though we tried to act like Officer Urbanski had never crossed our path, he had definitely put a damper on our fun. Oh, Billy did the whole die-on-the-doorstep thing a few more times, but his performance went from great to lame pretty quick, and before you know it we were back to straight trick-or-treating.**

**And then we got caught in the Invasion of Little People. I don't know if it was the neighborhood or what, but little Luke Skywalkers and ghosts and teddy bears were suddenly everywhere, scampering up and down the walkways, blasting past us or squealing at the sight of five big zombies in their way.**

**So finally I say what I know everyone else is thinking. "Why don't we go check out the haunted house?"**

**Everyone's quiet until Holly shrugs and says, "I've heard it's pretty cool."**

**Marissa nods. "Me too."**

**Casey shakes his head. "Yeah, but I really _don't _want to go, you know that?"**

**I grab his arm and give him a deathly smile. "Yes, you do."**

**Somehow this pushes the rest on Billy's mood. He grabs Casey's other arm and says, "Yes, my pretty ugly, you do!"**

"It doesn't really get any better than there, right?" I ask.

"No..." Billy says.

"Well technically, it's Holly's fault. She agreed to go to the haunted house." I say pointing my finger at her.

"Uh-uh. It's your fault. You asked us if we wanted to go!" Holly said back at me.

"I asked a question. If you hadn't answered then Marissa wouldn't have either and then we could've had a normal Halloween."

"NOTHING IS NORMAL WITH YOU!" They all said back. Well not Casey, he just said it. Not shouted it.

"I'm just a very complex person." I argued.

"Tell me about it." Casey muttered.

I playfully hit him in the arm and then Billy started reading again.

**"So we duck out of that neighborhood and head for Feere Street, and pretty soon we find ourselves on the corner of Stowell and Nightingale waiting for the light to turn green.**

**"Perfect!" Billy says, pointing across the street. "Bonesville!"**

**Casey gives him a grin. "The old side, too!"**

**Now, the Santa Martina Cemetery is big, and is basically divided into two sections-the old and the new. And the whole thing's separated from the rest of the world by a stone wall that's topped with wrought-iron fencing. So it's not like you're actually _next _to graves as you go by, but still, there's no ignoring the fact that there are people buried on the other side of the wall-especially when you're going past the old part. It's hilly and has big gnarled trees, and there's everything from life-sized angels on huge podiums to marble grave markers that look like tall skinny pyramids to the Sunset Crypt-a full blown mausoleum with Roman pillars and flower urns and a shiny black threshold that says **DISTURB NOT THE SLEEP OF DEATH.

**The _new _part , on the other hand, was leveled before they started burying people and has only flat grave markers with built-in holes for flowers. Nothing sticks up so a riding mower can drive right over the graves.**

**When I first found out about the riding mower, it really bothered me. But now I try to think of it as sort of gentle massage for dead people. I mean, they're six feet under and in a box, right? So they probably barely feel the big ol' lawn mower rumbling around above them. And if they _do_, it's gotta be a pretty quiet, soothing vibration, right?**

**Anyway, when the light turns green we start to cross Stowell, but jump back quick when a silver minivan looks like it's going to barrel right through the light. It nose-dives to a halt at the last second, and as we cross in front of it Holly says, "Another idiot breaking the law."**

**At first I don't now what she's talking about, but she's looking at the driver, so I do, too, and what I see is a women with ruby red hair talking on her cell phone.**

**"Everybody does that," I tell her.**

**"Which is why there are so many crazy drivers!"**

"You must have been pretty upset..." I said to Holly, sadly. Losing her mom must have been hard for her.

"Yeah, but fate is a crazy thing and I've learned to cope." She replied, her eyes staring at something in front of her.

I nodded and all of us stayed quiet a minute. Half of us were bowing their heads, as if they were trying to sympathize for Holly.

**"So we cross the street, and as we walk away from the traffic on Stowell Road and down the cemetery side of Nightingale Lane, we pass by a crooked old gate. It's just a single-person gate and it's got a chain and lock around it, but I know from experience that it's definitely not kid-proof.**

**Now, I'm not about to mention this little fact, but Billy figures it out for himself. "What are we _thinking_?" h e cries. "We're zombies! We need to join our brethren!" and in a flash he's squeezing through the gate.**

**"No!" Marissa cries. "I do _not _want to go into the graveyard!" **

"Who died and made you queen of the whiners? Geez, your not all that and a bag of potato chips!" I pouted at Marissa.

**"Uh, why?" Casey asks as he follows Billy. "Are you afraid you'll scare the ghosts?"**

**"I... I just don't!"**

**It's a shortcut," Billy singsongs. "It'll save us at least ten minutes."**

"That was a long ten minutes." I muttered.

"Casey! What is with Snarky Sammy today?" Billy hissed.

"I have no idea." Casey chuckled.

I playfully slapped him in his arm, "There's nothing wrong with me. I just speak my mind."

**"Will not!"**

**Holly steps forward, following Casey and Billy. "Come on, Marissa. It's Halloween. It'll be fun." Then she adds, "You don't believe in ghosts, do you?"**

**"No, but...!" Marissa looks to me for help, and the truth is, I'm kinda torn. I mean, I'm not crazy about the idea, but it _is_ Halloween, and we a_re _dressed up like zombies, and something about doing it sounds fun.**

**In a heart-in-your-throat kind of way, but still.**

**"You're kidding me!" Marissa says, watching me think. You're going to abandon me? What kind of friend are you? Why are you always dragging me places I don't want to go? Do you remember the last time we took a shortcut? Do you _remember_?"**

**"Yeah. Through the mall. Nice cool air..."**

**"No! The time before that!"**

**"Uh, let's see... I remember the last time we took a _long _cut..."**

**"No!" she says pointing a finger at me. "Don't you _even _bring that up!"**

"Snitch!" Marissa says loudly. Then she stook out her tongue.

"Billy already knows now. You guys read ahead of us, now hurry up. I feel left out. I have no idea what she's talking about." Casey says impatiently.

**"Bring what up?" Holly asks through the gate. Then she says, "Oh. That you go by-"**

**"No!" Marissa cries, because there's no way in the world she wants Casey and Billy to know that she's so obsessed with Danny Urbanski that she takes the long way home from school, just so she can walk past his house.**

**And she's so desperate to shut us up that she grabs my wrist and before you know it, we're squeezing through the graveyard gate."**

"Woah!" Casey says shocked.

Billy has and unreadable expression on his face. Probably jealousy? I don't really know because I've never seen him like that. Marissa is just looking down, a little embarrassed.

"I'm not gonna tell anyone!" Casey says in a _duh! _voice.

"Good!" Billy and Marissa say together.

"Now hand over the book. It's my turn!" Casey says rolling up his sleeves.

Billy hands over the book, and Casey looks it over before reading.


	3. Reading Chapter 2

**Reading Chapter 2**

**Sammy's POV**

**A/N: Okay, so I spent pretty much all day typing up chapter 2 yesterday -_- Yall's are welcome. I just reread that sentence and it sounds weird. Lmfao, **_**ya'lls.**_** Anyway, so yeah, you guys are welcome and I've already started chapter 3, but I only got up to a page and a half. I'll work on that when I'm done adding the comments and every thing else. Btw, right now, all I have is the book wrds, not the coments and stuff because for some reason I'm typing the author's note befre I finish the chapter. O.o Anyway, right now it is 2:16 p.m., on my end.**

"Wow, this chapter is eight pages long." Casey said, probably stalling for time. I rolled my eyes.

"Can your first grade level brain not handle eight pages?" I tease him.

"Yeah, Casey there might be tough words." Bily adds. I give him a high five and we both laugh.

"I have a tenth grade level brain, thank you very much." Casey said, understanding that I was just joking. "Anyway, the story..

**"The last time I snuck into the graveyard I got busted by the groundskeeper-a small, dusty guy who hobbled around with a hoe. In my head I'd called him Dusty but his name was really Mike. And when he'd found out that I was looking for a little girl named Elyssa who kept running away, he'd been nice and very helpful. And after I figured out why Elyssa kept coming to the graveyard, I sorta promised him I wouldn't be sneaking through his side gate anymore.-"**

"Sammy!" Billy gasps, hand over his heart.

"What?" I ask innocently.

"You're always supposed to keep your promises. I am appalled." He said in an overly dramatic voice. I raised an eyebrow but just let Casey continue.

**"But here I am, sneaking through that same gate, and I'm telling myself that Dusty Mike will never know, but then I see his hoe leaning up against the wall.**

**I know it's Dusty Mike's, too. It's ancient, with a graceful curve in the neck and a sharp shiny blade. The handle is also shaped nicely-like a long hickory bat-and is stained almost black in places from being used so much.-"**

"It sounds like a cool hoe." Holly comments.

**"I try to blink it away, but it just stands there like a big, wagging finger, telling me, Ah-ah-ah! Sammy, you promised. Now turn back!-"**

"Haha. Wagging finger." Billy says then starts laughing. Wha-?

**"I don't turn back, though. Instead I turn away and follow the others into the graveyard.**

**Now, near the street there's enough light to see where we're going. But the deeper into the graveyard we go, the darker it gets. Plus, the old part of the graveyard is not exactly laid out in a grid. Besides being hilly, there are walkways that wind around, dead-end, or just vanish. One minute you're going along on a strip of ancient cement, the next it's covered in dirt, and then **_**poof**_**-it's gone and you're following some little dirt path that leads you to a big, crooked tombstone.-"**

"That's so annoying!" Marissa says. We all nod in agreement.

**"So it's pretty slow going and not feeling like much of a shortcut, and everyone's kinda quiet until Marissa says, 'Why would anyone want to be buried, anyway? The whole idea's just gross.'-"**

"Oh great, this conversation again." I mutter. Marissa glares at me and I smile cheekily at her.

**"'So you'd rather be cremated?' Holly asks.**

**'Sizzleleeeeean!' Billy says. 'Bad choice, though, 'cause you couldn't come back and bwa-ha-haunt the rest of us!'-"**

"Well, who said I wanted to?" Marissa says to Billy.

"Calm down, I was just saying." Billy says in mock surrender, as if Marissa was coming at him with a butcher knife.

**"I shake my head. 'Isn't your soul supposed to leave your body after you die? And it's your soul that haunts, right? So it shouldn't matter if you get buried or cremated.'**

**Marissa shudders. 'I don't want to bwa-ha-haunt anybody! I don't want to di-i-ie!'**

**Holly snorts. 'Well, good luck there.'-"**

"Ugh, I hate death. Why do people have to die?" Marissa questions.

**"'I'm serious. I hate thinking about death. I hate thinking about...all of it! And, as if being gone forever isn't bad enough, I have to decide if I want to get eaten by maggots or turned into ash.'-"**

Casey stops and smirks. "I bet you guys could guess who said that one." We all look pointedly at Marissa and she blushes a little.

**"Over his shoulder Casey calls, 'So you don't believe in heaven? God? The glorious ever-after?'**

**'Do **_**you**_**?' I ask him, because Casey and I may have discussed a lot of things, but not God or any glorious ever-after.-"**

"Hmm," Holly says with a smirk on her face.

"What?" I say.

"Seems like Sammy here is offended that they haven't talked about death and all that." Billy answers for her.

"I was not offended." I argue.

"Sure seemed like it." Casey mumbles.

"What?" I turn it to him.

"Nothing, nothing." Casey says then starts reading again.

**"'I'd like to,' he says taking a path between two graves. 'It sure would beat getting eaten by maggots or turned into ash.'**

**I hurry to catch up to him. 'But that happens to you anyway, even if there is a heaven.'**

**Holly says, 'Some people think your body goes with you to heaven.'**

**Billy looks back at her. 'Then what are all these bodies doing in the graveyard?'-"**

"Buuuuuuuuuuuuuurn!" Billy yells.

**"So **_**I **_** add, 'My grams thinks there's a purgatory. It's someplace you go after you die to pay for your sins.'**

**Holly nods. 'Right. It's like hell, only your relatives can pray you out of it and into heaven.'**

**'Whatever,' Marissa grumbles. 'The point is the thought of death freaks me out and you guys are dragging me through a graveyard full of maggot-infested bodies!'**

**'They are not maggot-infested,' Holly says.**

**'Yes they are,' Marissa snaps. 'You just don't want to think about it, that's all.'-"**

"Were you on your period that night?" I ask her.

**"'Hey, you can get an airtight coffin, did you know that?' I tell her. 'No maggots allowed.'**

**Casey leads us around a giant tombstone. '**_**Or**_** you can be embalmed and then no bugs'll want to touch you!'**

**Billy holds up a hand and hops up and down. 'Pickle **_**me**_**. Pickle **_**me**_**.'-"**

"What does that mean exactly?" I ask him. He shrugs. "Yeah, real helpful." I say sarcastically.

**"'Ewww!' Marissa cries.**

**Casey shrugs. 'Well, it keeps you from decompsing . At least for a while.'**

**'So there you go,' I say to Marissa. 'Get embalmed and get an airtight coffin.'**

**'But I have claustrophobia!'-"**

"Aaaargh!" I scream in frustration. Then I look up at the sky as if God is staring back at me. "This chick," I point in the general of Marissa. "is never happy!" I exclaim.

**"Holly laughs. 'Well, then, I guess burial of any kind is out. No mausoleum for you, either.' She points to the Sunset Crypt sort of glowing in the moonlight at the top of the rise ahead of us. 'The thing is big!'**

**Marissa shivers. 'Can we **_**please**_** change the subject? I know I'm dressed as a walking dead thing, but this is really, **_**really**_** creeping me out.' She points toward the right. 'And if this is supposedly a shortcut, shouldn't we be going that way?'**

**Casey changes direction a little. 'How about a **_**funny**_** dead-guy story?'-"**

"I love the dead guy story!" Holly pipes up. I nod eagerly.

**"'Sure,' Marissa grumbles. 'Anything.'**

**'Let me start by saying it's a **_**true**_** funny dead-guy story. And it takes place in the Wild West. In Oklahoma.'**

**'Oklahoma wasn't the Wild West, was it?' Holly asks. 'It's in the middle of the country.'**

**Casey glances back. 'Yeah, but at one point it was as far west as they'd gotten, and from what I've read it was pretty wild.' We follow him single file between two tall, skinny grave monuments as he goes on with the story. 'So there was this guy named Elmer McCurdy who turned to a life of crime at the ripe old age of fifteen when he found out that his mother was really his aunt, and his aunt was really his mother.'**

**'Oh, nice,' I grumble, because let's just say I have deep-seated parental issues involving secrecy and unknown identities."**

They all look at me with concern and sympathy but I look away.

**"Casey goes on with the story.-"**

"Irony.." Billy says.

**"'But as fate would have it, Elmer McCurdy was not cut out to be an outlaw. He tried to be feared and he tried to be fearless, but he was neither. He'd jump a train to rob it, but it would be the wrong train. He'd blow up a safe with nitroglycerin, but he'd use too much and melt everything inside it. He was embarrassingly lame at being a criminal.'**

**'The Unlucky Outlaw!' Billy cries, and I add, 'The Bumbling Bandit!'-"**

Billy and I laugh at the nicknames that we called him and we high-five again.

**"Casey laughs. 'Exactly. So of course when there was finally a showdown, he was the one who got killed.'**

**We're following Casey through an area where the trees are extra big, and it's really dark and very creepy, but I'm actually not scared. For one thing, I'm with four other people, but what's really helping all of us forget that we're walking through a spooky old graveyard is the story.**

**'That's it?' Holly asks. 'Boom, he's dead, end of story?'-"**

"Ha!" I say. "That's never the end of a story."

**'Actually, no,' Casey says. 'This us where it starts getting interesting. It turned out that nobody wanted to pay for Elmer McCurdy's burial.'**

**'Or burning?' Billy asks.**

**Casey thinks a minute. 'I'm not sure they even had cremations in the Wild West. I think everyone got buried.'**

**Marissa edges ahead so she can hear better. 'Why not just dig a grave and be done with it?'-"**

"It's never that simple," Billy says in a little impersonation of a sensei. "Young Grasshopper." See?

**'Because it's a lot of work to dig out six feet of dirt.'**

**I kind of half-trip on a tree root, then catch myself. 'So what'd they do?'-"**

"Haha! Sammy almost fell. Sammy almost fell. Sammy almost fell. Sammy almost fe- OW!" Billy taunted until I hit him. Really hard.

**'They pumped him full of arsenic-'**

**'Arsenic!' the rest of us cry.-"**

"We didn't actually cry, right?" Marissa asks.

"Uh, no." I respond to her while giving her a strange look.

**Casey laughs. 'Well, yeah, arsenic will kill you, but he was already dead, right? Arsenic is what they used to embalm him. And the undertaker must've thought it would take a while for a relative to claim him because he used a **_**lot **_**of arsenic. Like, hundreds of times more than usual. Then he left him on a marble slab and waited for someone to come get him.'**

**'And did they?' Holly asks.**

**'Nope. And after a while the undertaker got sick of him hogging up the marble slab, so he stood him in a corner.'**

**Billy dodges around a big white cross. 'He could stand by himself because he was all stiff from a rigor mortis?'-"**

"What's that?" Holly asks. But no one answers her.

**"'Exactly. And pretty soon word got around that for a nickel you could see Outlaw McCurdy in his shoot-out clothes. He stood in that corner for five years.'**

**All of us go, 'Five years!' and Billy adds 'Beats my time-out record.' Then he laughs, 'But barely!'**

I've heard a few things on Billy's family, and his time-out record, real or not, doesn't really surprise me. Maybe it isn't because he deserved it, maybe it was because he was neglected at home or his parents were too busy with work or something and needed him out of the way. I don't know.

**We're walking behind the cemetery's Garden of Repose now, which is just a little plaza with benches and a small pond that is surrounded by willow trees. Nobody's in the mood to "repose" though. We're just following Casey like he's the graveyard's very own Pied Piper as he goes on with his outlaw story.-"**

"Pied Piper?" Casey questions and I just wave him off and blush slightly.

**"'Then one day two relatives of Elmer's showed up saying they wanted to give their uncle a proper burial. So they paid for him and took him away, only they weren't actually relatives. They were carnival owners.'**

**Billy laughs. 'They wanted the Unlucky Outlaw as a sideshow?'**

**'Exactly. And for the next who-knows-how-many years, Elmer McCurdy traveled from town to town, until eventually they had to coat his body with wax to keep him from falling apart.'**

**Marissa is so into this story that she's grabbing onto tombstones to steady herself as she tries to close in on Casey. 'So...he became a waxed-over corpse in a traveling freak show? For how long?'-"**

"Ooh, I love this next part." Holly says and I grin, cause I do too.

**"'For years and years and years. **_**Decades. **_**He finally wound up as part of a sideshow in an amusement park in California, but at that point people had forgotten where he'd come from-they all thought he was just a wax figure. But then a television studio rented him to use in a TV show, and while they were filming, his **_**arm**_** broke off.'**

Holly and I laugh imagining their faces.

**Marissa gasps. 'It just broke off?'**

**'Yup. And in one whiff they knew there was a corpse inside.'**

**'So...what did they do with him?' Holly asks.**

**'That Wild West town in Oklahoma decided they wanted him back, and finally buried him.' Casey laughs. 'Being a celebrity has its rewards, I guess. Before he was just a bumbling bandit. Now they give tours of his gravesite.'**

**'Well, that's ironic,' Holly says. 'First nobody wanted him, and now total strangers go visit him.'-"**

"Hypocrites." We all mutter at the same time but only Billy adds, "Jinx!" after it happens.

**"'That's another thing about graveyards,' Marissa says. 'If you're not some notorious outlaw or a celebrity or something, who visits you? Nobody! You're just stuck in the ground until the end of time, alone.'**

**'Wow,' I tell her, 'that's a cheerful thought.'**

**'We're in a **_**graveyard**_**! There are **_**dead**_** people all...all **_**under**_** us. What do you expect!'**

**Billy leapfrogs over a headstone. 'Good thing we showed up then, huh? Doing our civic duty for all the lonely bones.'**

**"They're not just lonely!" Marissa cries. "They're **_**forgotten**_**."**

**She's getting herself all worked up again, so I put a hand on her shoulder and say, 'Hey, it's okay, don't freak out.'**

**'I really, really hate death,' she whimpers.**

**I grin at her. 'So why'd you drag me in here?'**

**'What?'**

**Our little argument gets cut short because just then Casey stops dead in his tracks.**

**'Whoa,' Billy says, pulling up right beside him.**

**So the rest of us stop, too, and that's when I see something running across graves in the new section.**

**'Is that a **_**person**_**?' Holly whispers.-"**

"OMG!" Billy shrieks. "What is it? What is it? What is it?" He jumps off of his blanket and tackles Casey.

"You already know what it is!" I scream at him and try to get him off of Casey, who still has the book in his hand.

"Oh, right." He says, then very siftly he gets off of Casey and sits back down next to Marissa, very nonchalantly.

Casey sits up and eyes Billy.

"Marissa, your boyfriend is a spaz." Casey tells her.

"Yeah, I worry about him." I add. Billy smiles and then gets up and starts walking toward me.

"Aww, thanks Sammy." He says and then he stops and just stands there. "HEY!"

We all laugh, except Billy. He thought that I meant that I worry about him in a good way. Like a mom or something. I worry about him in a soon-he' know, like nut case? Wacko? Mental institute?

Anyway, so he sits back down grumbling about how he was going to hug me and say that I was a good friend and stuff like that. But we know that he's not really upset about what I said.

**"Billy's voice comes out all hoarse when he says, 'That's no person. That's a **_**beast**_**.'**

**In the clouded moonlight it **_**looks**_** like a beast, too. It has weird wings that are half-flapping at its side and, even though it's moving fast, it's sort of hunched over and hobbling, like one leg is longer than the other.**

**Then Marissa chokes out, 'Oh my God!' because the Beast has turned and there's no doubt about it-it's coming our way.**

**'Hide!' Casey says. So we all take cover behind different tombstones.-"**

"You know, I felt really stupid when I found out that it wasn't real." Holly says and a chorus of 'Me too's' go around.

**"'I don't want to die,' Marissa whimpers.**

**'Shh!' I tell her. 'You're not gonna die.'**

**'And I really, really, **_**really**_** don't want to die in a graveyard! It would be so wrong to die in a graveyard.'**

**'Shhh!'**

**'I mean it!' she whispers. 'It's like showing up early for your own death!'-"**

"Jesus, you just don't shut up." I complain teasingly. Marissa glares but I know that she's fighting to try to a hide a smile.

**"I peek around the tombstone and that's when I see that the Beast is being chased by a man.**

**A **_**big**_** man.-"**

"Big as in tall, or big as in.. you know, chunky." Billy questions.

I shrug. "Both? I guess. I mean, you were there."

**"One who's wearing a ball cap and carrying a shovel.**

**So everyone peeks around their tombstone, watching the Beast as it runs out of the new section toward the old. **

**'That thing is coming to get us,' Billy says.**

**'Shh!' I tell him, but it's too late-Marissa's totally freaking out. 'Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!' she pants like she's about to die.-"**

"Which, you didn't." I say.

**"We watch the Beast get closer.**

**And closer.**

**My heart is beating like crazy and my whole body feels tense and twitchy. Like it's a fuse sparking and sputtering toward a bomb. And since the Beast is coming straight for us, we finally quit looking and cower behind our tombstones and hold our breath.**

**The footsteps get louder.**

**Then there's heavy breathing.**

**And all at once there it is.**

**Right above us.**

**The Beast."**

"Okay, that's it." Casey says.

"Who wants to read next?" I ask.

"Ooh, ooh!" Marissa says immediately raising her hand. "I do, I do."

"Alrighty then." Casey says and hands her the book.

**A/N: Okay, so if I get 6 or 5 reviews for this chapter, I wil update this tomorrow or Tuesday. So yeah, review. And okay. Right now, it is, 5:14. It took me almost three hours to type the comments in between the story words. But at least half an hour doesn't count because I had to go to the store with my little brother and my cousin.**

**Review!**


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